Creation Science Rebuttals

Institute for Creation
Research

Back to Genesis: The Prestige of
Historical Geology

1 April 2007

In one of the latest
Back to Genesis articles on the Institute for Creation Research
website, William Hoesch discusses historical geology, and how it
came to be that the earth is considered to be billions of years old.1

He explains that he learned in college of the old earth, and
then ten years later he came to commit his life to Christ.While it is unusual for a geology student to commit to a
young earth after college, it is not unheard of.In almost every case like this, the person was trained as a
youth by parents who were young earth, thus they always had this
underlying young earth training that clouds their objectivity.Young earth creationist organizations frequently use
testimonies of how educated people came to believe in a young earth
through examining the evidence.But in these cases, there is a previously existing leaning
towards a young earth.

Hoesch goes on to explain in his view how billions of years
became the accepted norm in Geology.He claims it was because early geologists goal was “to
achieve, for the study of earth history, the kind of prestige
enjoyed by the mathematical sciences like mechanics, optics, and
astronomy.”In order
for them to accomplish this, they had to remove the possibility of
supernatural intervention (God)..To do this, they simply took the observations of today’s
geologic processes, and extrapolated them back through time,
assuming that they always operated in the past as they do today.

In making such an argument, Hoesch is turning away from fact
and toward emotions.
Yes, they looked at geologic processes, and extrapolated back
through time.That is
an accepted scientific process.Many of these early geologists were also Christians, who did
not have a motive to remove God.However, Hoesch makes it sound like they banned God from
geology.

Since
a young earth does not agree with any of the scientific data, Hoesch
must make such an emotional claim.In reality, the scientific data which proves an old earth is
not anti-God.
Scientific data is void of any religious message.Data is data, plain and simple.Young earth creationists will never be happy with the data
because it does not support their belief in a young earth.

The geologic data showing an old earth is not anti-biblical.You can believe in both the Bible and in an old earth, as
millions of Christians do today.Progressive creationists believe in much the same way as
young earth creationists, in that God did not use evolution to
create.Theistic
evolutionists believe that God used evolution to create.Either position is sound scripturally.In fact, C.S. Lewis, the
great theologian and author of the Narnia series, was a theistic
evolutionist.Perhaps
the most fitting statement on creation is the one by
Billy
Graham. In
short, since salvation is not affected by the length of creation,
believe what you want.

If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision
for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to
what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the
inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while
still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.

Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we
have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in
this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If
you are a young earth creationism believer,
click here.